Woman dies after sexual assault in Anchorage

Jerry Andrew Active attempts to shield his face during his arraignment on charges of murder and sexual assault of a minor in the Anchorage jail court on Sunday, May 26, 2013. Active was arrested about a block from an apartment where the bodies of 71-year-old Sorn Sreap and 73-year-old Touch Chea were found Saturday night by their granddaughter, who had returned from a trip to a movie with her husband and 4-year-old son. (AP Photo/Anchorage Daily News, Bill Roth)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANCHORAGE — An elderly woman with dementia has died after being sexually assaulted and found in the same Anchorage apartment where her daughter and son-in-law were killed, authorities said.

Sreap Yan, who was in her 90s, died on Monday at Providence Alaska Medical Center, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

Prosecutors said Yan was sexually assaulted in the same May 25 attack that took the lives of 73-year-old Sorn Sreap and 71-year-old Touch Chea May, who were found beaten to death.

Prosecutors say Sreap, Yan and a child had been sexually assaulted.

Jerry Andrew Active, 24, has been charged and was being held on $1.5 million bail.

The sexual assault of Yan was not among the initial charges filed against Active because investigators had not received forensic exam results and Yan had been unable to communicate, Assistant District Attorney Clint Campion said.

A call by The Associated Press seeking comment from a state public defender representing Active was not immediately returned on Wednesday.

Active had been released on probation on the day of the attack. Last week, Alaska Attorney General Michael Geraghty acknowledged that prosecutors, corrections officials and a sentencing judge erred in assessing his criminal history.

A review determined that prosecutors mistakenly thought Active had no prior felony convictions when he was sentenced in 2009 for attempted sexual abuse of a minor, Geraghty said.

Active had been out of state custody fewer than 30 days since January 2009, Geraghty said, adding that multiple probation violations were connected to alcohol abuse, and no one could have foreseen that his release would have resulted in deaths and sexual assaults.

Yan’s health had failed since the attack, according to family friend Hank Moth. She was hospitalized and later suffered a stroke.

Prosecutors were waiting to review an autopsy and medical reports to determine if the attack played a role in her death, Campion said.

Yan had lived with her daughter since emigrating from Cambodia in the 1980s, Moth said. Funeral arrangements are being made.

“It’s just heartbreaking to have one go right after the others,” Moth said.